NBA 2K26 Impressions Thread

[Rori Daed]

I’ve already played 23 hours of NBA 2K26 in just 4 days… This game is like a big, overly sweet dessert : it looks tempting, but it’s way too sugary, and the sugar is just masking a lower-quality cookie underneath.

I don’t doubt it will still be successful because it’s more responsive : everything reacts faster now. Even double-teams trigger quicker, and the defense adapts faster (maybe even too fast). The only thing that ruins this speed and responsiveness is the dribbling, which is really choppy and ugly. You can chain completely unrealistic moves that would never happen in real life.

I could write a ton, but the bottom line is that the game still feels unfinished. The button mapping is worse than ever. For example, in triple threat position, it’s now impossible to advance your player with a dribble followed by a shot using the right stick. You can still do it with the shoot button, but not with the stick.

I also regret that hand-off passing is so underdeveloped. It’s still impossible to manually chain a hand-off pass into a roll or a fade.

And one last thing : your team always plays the same way on offense. I’ll repeat this because it’s just unbearable: your offense keeps repeating the same motions because the game constantly defaults to the “Motion” freelance. Even if you choose “Auto” in the menus, it never uses the team’s playbook : you have to do it manually. This is especially dumb for beginners, who end up playing the same offense over and over.

Overall, it feels like another unfinished game year, where microtransactions seem to be the only thing that really matters. NBA 2K isn’t the pinnacle it used to be. Back in the day, I genuinely felt motivated to play well : the game was first and foremost a basketball game, not just a video game.

PS: I’ve reported several bugs in the dedicated forum post, but I have a view counter linked to videos about these bugs, and nobody seems to watch them. I guess I’m wasting my time, and neither 2K, Beluba, nor Daczar actually look at what we write.

Interesting you say this about the offense. I found that when I was playing my friend my team was just running the most terrible repetitive offense, usually a ton of isolations, but then I played other games vs CPU or in PlayNow online and I got way more varied plays and stuff that looked like the pacers offense (which was the playbook I was running). So I guess there's something up here, I gotta look closer into what's happening and why sometimes the offense seems completely dumbed down and sometimes it seems fine

[AIRJ23]

Did they make Body types bigger again after advertising how important it was to make them smaller for spacing in 2K25? They look massive to me, but maybe that’s an optical illusion. Also lots of people must have complained after they heralded did how the slower movements last year looked more realistic and natural because the new game looks insanely fast and even jittery to me.

[ChaseB]

Do they still have the "shot timing visual cue" option?

If you mean the different release points, yes you can still have it on "release" or as you rise up, etc.

[scottyp180]

Yes. Maybe I had the name of the option wrong

[Gotmadskillzson]

every one keeps saying the game look fast, but when you are actually playing it, it doesn't feel fast at all to me. It just flows and feels natural.

[talladega63]

I think game speed 45 or less is better.
Da Czar said the gameplay will be updated pre release data.

[EccentricMeat]

I think game speed 45 or less is better.
Da Czar said the gameplay will be updated pre release data.

Nah Game Speed is about perfect where it is IMO. The game is fast and responsive without being floaty, and dropping Game Speed just reduces the responsiveness and makes everything feel heavy.

Decreasing Pass Speed and Agility a bit cleans up most of the “too fast” issues I’m seeing.

But we desperately need some RNG added back offline for shooting. With a set green release point, it’s nearly impossible to miss open shots once you learn your team’s shot animations.

[scottyp180]

Based on videos I've seen pass speed has looked too fast. What setting are you using?

[EccentricMeat]

scottyp180 I've been using 25 but it's a little too slow. About to test 35.

[JKSportsGamer1984]

Did they make Body types bigger again after advertising how important it was to make them smaller for spacing in 2K25? They look massive to me, but maybe that’s an optical illusion. Also lots of people must have complained after they heralded did how the slower movements last year looked more realistic and natural because the new game looks insanely fast and even jittery to me.

A lot of players look too small to me. Especially Donovan Mitchell. Players models are hit or miss in my opinion. Some players look bigger or buffer than they should, while some look too skinny & not as buff as they should be.

[MiracleMet718]

Nah Game Speed is about perfect where it is IMO. The game is fast and responsive without being floaty, and dropping Game Speed just reduces the responsiveness and makes everything feel heavy.

Decreasing Pass Speed and Agility a bit cleans up most of the “too fast” issues I’m seeing.

But we desperately need some RNG added back offline for shooting. With a set green release point, it’s nearly impossible to miss open shots once you learn your team’s shot animations.

It was like that last year though too. Maybe because I don’t use the meter but use meter shooting, but once I got down the guys I was shooting with, with how easy rotating the ball was last year to find an open shot, my guys were shooting crazy % since open 3s were easy once you got the release points down.

This year it seems like it’s a little tougher to get those wide open looks since the defensive AI seems better.

[JKSportsGamer1984]

Mike Wang if you're reading this, please raise the height of the Floor Cam just a little & it would be perfect! Also, there's a Fixed Height toggle for this cam, but it doesn't work. Please fix it so it works like the 2K Low cam, where if I have it toggled off, the camera doesn't take the ball out of view when shooting. Thanks in advance!

[DocHolliday]

As an offline player this is basically the same game as last year. If you don’t tell me it was 2k26 I would have legit thought it was 25.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AIRJ23]

Nah Game Speed is about perfect where it is IMO. The game is fast and responsive without being floaty, and dropping Game Speed just reduces the responsiveness and makes everything feel heavy.

Decreasing Pass Speed and Agility a bit cleans up most of the “too fast” issues I’m seeing.

But we desperately need some RNG added back offline for shooting. With a set green release point, it’s nearly impossible to miss open shots once you learn your team’s shot animations.

I don’t have the game yet so I imagine the speed may feel fun or fluid since the game itself if smooth. But based purely on VISUAL to me it looks unrealistically fast, like the players are moving at meth speed or something.

[AIRJ23]

A lot of players look too small to me. Especially Donovan Mitchell. Players models are hit or miss in my opinion. Some players look bigger or buffer than they should, while some look too skinny & not as buff as they should be.

I mean how they made the actual scaling of players smaller last year, not body types. They did it to improve spacing so everyone was just scaled a little down. They look scaled bigger again this year to me but not sure why they’d do that if it was a gameplay necessity, so maybe I’m seeing things there.

[scottyp180]

I don't have the game but I've seen comparison videos and in 2k25 players look a bit smaller to me, making the court look bigger and more open.

[scottyp180]

I’ve already played 23 hours of NBA 2K26 in just 4 days… This game is like a big, overly sweet dessert : it looks tempting, but it’s way too sugary, and the sugar is just masking a lower-quality cookie underneath.

I don’t doubt it will still be successful because it’s more responsive : everything reacts faster now. Even double-teams trigger quicker, and the defense adapts faster (maybe even too fast). The only thing that ruins this speed and responsiveness is the dribbling, which is really choppy and ugly. You can chain completely unrealistic moves that would never happen in real life.

I could write a ton, but the bottom line is that the game still feels unfinished. The button mapping is worse than ever. For example, in triple threat position, it’s now impossible to advance your player with a dribble followed by a shot using the right stick. You can still do it with the shoot button, but not with the stick.

I also regret that hand-off passing is so underdeveloped. It’s still impossible to manually chain a hand-off pass into a roll or a fade.

And one last thing : your team always plays the same way on offense. I’ll repeat this because it’s just unbearable: your offense keeps repeating the same motions because the game constantly defaults to the “Motion” freelance. Even if you choose “Auto” in the menus, it never uses the team’s playbook : you have to do it manually. This is especially dumb for beginners, who end up playing the same offense over and over.

Overall, it feels like another unfinished game year, where microtransactions seem to be the only thing that really matters. NBA 2K isn’t the pinnacle it used to be. Back in the day, I genuinely felt motivated to play well : the game was first and foremost a basketball game, not just a video game.

PS: I’ve reported several bugs in the dedicated forum post, but I have a view counter linked to videos about these bugs, and nobody seems to watch them. I guess I’m wasting my time, and neither 2K, Beluba, nor Daczar actually look at what we write.

I don't have the game but I've heard, and to an extent seen, that drive and kick to 3 is something that all teams and players do often. Doesn't matter if you're playing with/against a classic team that would emphasize mid range and low post, or a player who should aggressively attack the rim instead of kicking it out to 3 (Prime DRose or Westbrook for example).

That's a huge sim killer for me if true. I know that's a staple of the modern NBA, but that's a recent development from the last 5 years or so (and even 5 years is pushing). It sounds like team and player tendencies are inaccurate (again, this is based on impressions from others, please correct me if I'm wrong).

Does anyone know if there's been a Day 1 patch yet or will that drop when the game officially releases? Wondering if and how much the game will change on Friday. At this point, I have no intentions of buying the game until people start release sliders and settings. It'll be the first time since 2k4 that I'm don't get the game at launch.

[goma76]

A bit worried after watching this. Anyone can confirm these (enormous) problem in playing vs CPU? I known that the playbook should be updated but I'm sceptic that can fix the game.As a purely offline player against the CPU, if these issues are confirmed, it would be a big problem for me and I won't buy the game.

https://youtu.be/wmA7HlQdMwU?si=jZCiCu-tBP4y3AlT

[scottyp180]

Same video I came across. I was already on the fence about getting the game at launch, but after watching the video I'm in no rush. Maybe the video is hyperbolic and overreacting, but I also haven't seen or heard anything that has me excited either.

Usually the first week is the honeymoon phase and people are praising the game. This year, most impressions are lukewarm to negative from what I've seen, which are people more interested in sim basketball. The online, My Player/My Team community might think it's the greatest game ever.

[CujoMatty]

I find it way easier to make three pointers than layups or dunks. Seems like a problem to me lol.

Having such a hard time with the green window constantly changing sizes from when i start the layup or dunk to when i finish it. I get that things change and the layup or dunk can get contested late but its throwing me off so much that im routinely better off shooting threes.